7 Quick Takes, Vol. 116

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Need a gift for a new mom you know? I’ve got the very thing: Chicken Soup for the Soul: New Moms, available March 8th at a bookstore near you. Guess what? My essay, “The Power of Two,” about the day Julianna was born (and diagnosed with Down’s), is on p. 219, leading off the section entitled “tough stuff.” When the UPS truck pulled up the other day, I had a panic attack, because I couldn’t remember ordering anything. 🙂 It was my author copies. The book looks great!

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Received this email from Julianna’s PT at preschool on Wednesday: “Just thought you might want to know that Julianna jumped today.  She actually left the ground and then landed on her bottom and then looked very surprised.  She did this twice!  So exciting.”

Everybody stand up and cheer for Julianna! 🙂

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This week I learned, via active conversations on FB and on a guest blog post, that that the liturgy wars are alive and well. I would rather have been wrong. And if you feel so inclined, please don’t argue with me here. I’m burned out on arguing for the week.

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I got a phone call yesterday from the very first flute student I ever taught…well, I suppose that’s not true, there was a girl I taught when I was in HS for about three weeks…but anyway, this cute little 8-year-old girl I started on the flute long ago called me for some refresher lessons and she is now TWENTY-TWO. How is it possible that someone I taught in adulthood has grown that much? 36 must be older than I think it is. 🙂

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Speaking of which, I should have already known 36 was older than I think it is. Last Saturday I went out and shoveled a clear space for the mail truck. It was approximately 10 feet by 7 feet, and it was twenty inches deep. And midway through, I felt a “pop” in my trapezius muscle. But all day, it didn’t seem to be bothering me. By evening it was coming on, so I had Christian rub Tiger Balm on it, but by morning I could barely move. And the next day was worse. And every night has been agonizing. I can’t shift positions without pain so intense that I howl aloud. For three nights Christian had to get up and take care of the kids in the middle of the night. (And let me tell you, he knows what it feels like now!) As of Thursday, it took a significant turn for the better, but last night still was not terrific.

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I’ve been struggling with structure for my new novel, which is something of an “ensemble piece” (think Grand Canyon or Crash) A writer/blog friend recommended that I read Ken Follett‘s The Pillars of the Earth as a good example of an “ensemble piece” in literature (as opposed to in the movies). I did, and Christian & I have also watched the 8-part miniseries made off it via Netflix, so I could see how they differ in presentation. I highly recommend both. At the beginning of the book I thought, “This writing isn’t all that terrific,” but either it improved or the story was so good I stopped noticing. 🙂 It fizzles a bit at the very end, but all in all it was a book I put on the list of really, really good reads.

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This got me thinking about the Catholic Church in the middle ages, and the source of many of the things people criticize, and why they got that way. Ken Follett writes in his introduction that he was an odd choice to write a book about building a cathedral in the Middle Ages, because he is an atheist. Considering that, I was impressed with how he handled the faith beliefs. There are people who twist the faith, and there are people whose internal narrative reveals them to be truly Godly people. But the long and short is that I feel a blog post coming on next week. 🙂

Have a great weekend!